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“We launched our new video series at Petersham Nurseries Restaurant, London, featuring Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Mark Hix, Amelia Freer and a host of other celebrated chefs, and the farmers who provide their pork.

“The videos champion high animal welfare British farming and urge us all to join the #TurnYourNoseUp at pig factories campaign. Could you taste the difference between pork from a high welfare farm, and pork from a factory farm? Mark Hix, Damian Clisby & James Golding hosted our event to showcase the difference.”

“We screened the second episode of our ‘Rooting For Real Farms’ series at the event. Watch it here:farmsnotfactories.org/rooting-for-real-farms/ep-2. In this video we meet Harry Boglione, a passionate advocate of Slow Food and sustainable living and owner of Haye Farm Devon, which he founded in 2014 after escaping London with partner, Emily. The now fully organic mixed farm supplies pigs, chickens, rabbits, ducks and seasonal vegetables to Petersham Nurseries, as well as other renowned London restaurants. Harry set up the 66 acre farm with no formal training and rears Oxford Sandy and Black and Gloucester Old Spot pigs. He believes the way to achieve sustainability is by “doing a bit of everything”, adding, “I am yet to give a pig antibiotics, they are incredibly resilient creatures so if you’ve got to give them antibiotics your doing something incredibly wrong. Not only is it cruel but its not healthy, and its not sustainable”.

“Animal factories cram pigs into such overcrowded and unhealthy conditions that they need to be routinely dosed with antibiotics just to keep them alive. The sheds become a breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, bringing us ever closer to the time when antibiotics no longer work as a cure for animal or human diseases. By only buying pork with high welfare labels we can close pig factories. It’s that simple!”

“We, the undersigned, believe that industrial methods of food production constitute a very serious threat to the Polish people and the Polish countryside, and therefore we URGE the President and the Polish Government to respect the voice of the majority of their electorate and immediately implement the postulates of the BELWEDER DECLARATION: ‘The Charter of Real Farming and Real Food’ “

Its demands make many valuable points, including:

The need to recognise the key role of small and medium farms in the protection and preservation of food sovereignty that is essential for the basic supply of food for the nation.

The removal of restrictions concerning the possibility to buy a full range of products from local farmers by shops, schools, restaurants and other institutions.

Support for the processing of foods on farms and the use of renewable energy sources.

Implementation of an immediate ban on the sales, cultivation and production of GMOs, as well as an effective strategy for the production of GMO-free Polish animal feeds.

The introduction of organic farming methods into schools’ and universities’ curriculums as one of the main directions and not just an alternative to industrial methods of food production.

And ends:

We urge the President and the Polish Government to stop promoting the current agricultural policy based on highly chemical, industrial farming that can lead hundreds of thousands farmers to bankruptcy, soils to degradation and the country to food catastrophe.